Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) on social distancing policy. The Republic of Korea has been providing information to the public through WEAs using mobile phones. This study used five data sets: WEA messages, news articles including the keyword “COVID-19,” the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients, public foot traffic data, and the government’s social distancing level. The WEAs were classified into two topics—“warning” and “guidance”—using a random forest model. The results of the correlation analysis and further detailed analysis confirmed that the “warning” WEA topic and number of news articles significantly affected public foot traffic. However, the “guidance” topic was not significantly associated with public foot traffic. In general, the Korean government’s WEAs were effective at encouraging the public to follow social distance recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the “warning” WEA topic, by providing information about the relative risk directly concerning the recipients, was significantly more effective than the “guidance” topic.
Highlights
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) on social distancing policy
During the COVID-19 pandemic, more confirmed patients led to more WEA messages being issued
The variables statistically significantly correlated with public foot traffic were “warning” messages, “guidance” messages, and COVID-19 confirmed cases
Summary
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) on social distancing policy. This study used five data sets: WEA messages, news articles including the keyword “COVID-19,” the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients, public foot traffic data, and the government’s social distancing level. Based on the previous experience of infectious diseases, such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, the Korean government conducted extensive epidemiological investigations They used information and communications technology such as wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) and websites to share information effectively. WEAs via mobile phone, a representative measure providing disaster information, have been widely used for delivering COVID-19 warnings and encouraging social distancing in Korea. In Korea, the WEA service based on cell broadcast service (CBS) technology has been implemented since 2005, and local governments and central authorities have had the power to send such messages since 20177 They send warning messages to individual cell phones connected to the base stations of mobile service providers in a designated area. Restrained traffic can be regarded as the public’s efforts to participate in social distancing policies
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